[Foundation-l] Language proposal policy

[Mark Williamson]

How, then, is the Turkish Wikipedia one of our leading Wikipedias if a
Wiki needs localization to function and it isn't well localized?

MArk

2008/9/15 Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com>:
> Hoi,
> What we do is done to make information available. Our main objective is not
> the creation of content, but the publication of content to readers. It is a
> well established fact that localisation is one of the best methods of making
> our content more accessible to our readers.
>
> Andre, you and I are fortunate that both the English, the German, the Dutch
> and the French Wikipedias have a continued great localisation. These are the
> languages that a typical Dutch person will read. Consequently ou do not know
> the problem of limited localisation because you do not experience it.
>
> When you say that it is a bother for editors that they have to localise, I
> will agree. However, all this work is necessary to make the content they
> create more accessible to the readers. It is the readers and getting more
> readers that everything centres around.
> Thanks,
>        GerardM
>
> On Tue, Sep 16, 2008 at 8:39 AM, Andre Engels <andreengels at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Tue, Sep 16, 2008 at 8:19 AM, Gerard Meijssen
>> <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > What we need more then new projects is supporting our existing languages.
>> > Even for languages like Turkish, one of our bigger projects, we have only
>> > 74% of the MediaWiki messages and 25% of the WMF used extensions
>> localised.
>>
>> I would say: so what? As you say, it is one of our bigger projects,
>> and it seems to be doing well. If then still MediaWiki is not
>> localized as you would like it, maybe that means that localization of
>> MediaWiki is not thought by everybody to be as important as you think
>> is? Wikimedia is there in the first place for making encyclopedias,
>> textbooks and dictionaries. Projects should be supported with what
>> they need to do that better. And I don't think that translating
>> MediaWiki, at least beyond what the average editor comes across on a
>> regular basis, would be high on that list. Apparently the Turkish
>> agree with me. Translating the interface in many languages is a nice
>> thing to have, and I am happy you are working on that. But I do feel
>> you are putting way too much emphasis on it, to an extent that is
>> bothering languages more than supporting them. Creating a betawiki,
>> and inviting people to come over there is supporting languages.
>> Forcing them to go a certain distance with it before they can get
>> their project is bothering them. Then you are using the Wikipedias
>> (and Wiktionaries and other projects) to build the software, rather
>> than the other way around.
>>
>> --
>> André Engels, andreengels at gmail.com
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